Poppy Factory

On Friday 15th November 2JCH visited the Poppy Factory in Richmond. We found out how they make the poppies and even had a go ourselves. We split in to two groups and had a competition to see who could make the most. Group B won by 227 to 226!

We saw copies of all the wreaths that are laid by the Royal Family at the Cenotaph in London and we got to see them making the actual wreath that will be laid by the Prince of Wales next year.

In 1922 Major George Howson, a young infantry officer, formed the Disabled Society to help disabled ex-Service men and women from the First World War.

Howson suggested to the Legion that members of the Disabled Society could make poppies, and the Poppy Factory was subsequently founded in Richmond in 1922. The original poppy was designed so that workers with a disability could easily assemble it and this principle remains today.

The staff at the facory work all year round to make more than 40 million Remembrance poppies, 500,000 poppies of other types, 5 million Remembrance petals, 100,000 wreaths and sprays and 750,000 Remembrance Crosses.